While The United Methodist Church’s U.S. membership has continued to shrink, its growth elsewhere in the world has put it over the 12 million-member mark for the first time, newly released statistics show.
The church’s membership in Africa, Europe and Asia grew from 3.5 million to 4.4 million in the five years ending in 2009, according to the United Methodist Council on Finance and Administration.
In that time, worldwide membership increased from almost 11.6 million to nearly 12.1 million.
[blockquote] “There is no future for The United Methodist Church in the U.S. unless it can demonstrate that it can reach more people, younger people and more diverse people,†declared the Rev. Lovett H. Weems Jr., professor at Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, D.C. … Weems attributed United Methodist losses in part to the U.S. population’s migration from the denomination’s traditional rural base to more metropolitan areas where the church has been weaker.
Other factors, he said, include “the retreat for many years from starting new churches where the people were moving and the failure to reach the emerging younger and more diverse population.†[/blockquote]
Rev. Weems manages to avoid the real issue. Methodist churches in Africa and Asia grow for the same reason that Anglican churches in those continents grow: They don’t tolerate western liberal teaching, and they stick to the faith once delivered as set forth in scripture, the creeds etc. Liberalism means slow death, no matter which church you are in.